


What you were then I am today

by bonspiel



Series: I and love and you [2]
Category: Wilby Wonderful (2004)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-06-13
Updated: 2012-06-13
Packaged: 2017-11-07 15:00:38
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 438
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/432425
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bonspiel/pseuds/bonspiel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Duck is forty-two when he meets Dan Jarvis.</p>
            </blockquote>





	What you were then I am today

**Author's Note:**

> Title and epigram from I and Love and You by the Avett Brothers.

_When at first I learned to speak I used all my words to fight  
With him and her and you and me  
oh, but it’s just a waste of time,   
yeah, it’s such a waste of time_

 

Duck is seventeen the first time a a guy fucks him. He’s in Halifax, in this seedy little hotel not far from the harbour, and the sound of the water reminds him too much of Wilby. 

Duck is ten the first time he gets into a fight. One of the popular boys in school tries to take his lunch money, and Duck tackles him to the ground. He goes home with a black eye and a split lip, and his mother just glares.

Duck is twenty the first time he comes back to Wilby, for his grandmother’s funeral. He thinks maybe the island has shrunk while he was gone.

Duck is twelve the first time he looks at another guy and thinks about sex. 

Duck is fourteen the first time he paints a house for money. He hides the cash from his mom, but she finds it cleaning and it’s gone. He starts again, accumulating it in his locker this time. 

Duck is twenty-one the first time he gets arrested, for fighting outside a club and stabbing someone in the thigh with a broken beer bottle. 

Duck is sixteen the first time he falls in love. It’s a crush, he knows, and stupid besides, because Buddy French plays basketball, runs track, has a girlfriend, and has never done a thing wrong in the eyes of the town. But they were partners on a project for literature class, and Buddy was nice to him, and smiled, and Duck lies in his bed at night and pretends. 

Duck is twenty-seven when he stops drinking. It’s rough going for a while, but eventually he realizes that he actually likes himself most days. 

Duck is thirty-three when he moves back to Wilby, after his mother dies. He doesn’t change anything in her house for six months, and then he hauls it all to the dump and paints the place inside and out.

Duck is forty-two when he meets Dan Jarvis. Dan doesn’t make much of an impression at first, honestly, just another yuppie mainlander looking for the simple life. He’s cute enough, but he’s also married. Duck likes the video store, though, likes stopping by and picking up a movie when the house is too quiet and the weather’s too wild to be out for long. When Duck first notices Dan looking, really looking, he decides to wait and see. He’s gotten good at that.


End file.
